THE insider hears that council culture bosses are 'absolutely furious' at the BBC's shambles of a programme called The Clash Of The Cities.

David Henshaw, Sue Woodward and co have been pulling out all the stops to present the city in a great light against other short-listers.

They are said to be 'seething at the 30-minute fiasco'.

A council insider says: "The BBC kept moving the goal posts.

"Ricky is a fine ambassdor for the city and has worked hard in promoting all the right things about Liverpool, but he wasn't right for this show.

"We would have loved to have had Sir Paul McCartney. The BBC promised him they just didn't chase him hard enough. Paul was up for it - even down to a phone chat down the line during the programme."

And it appears the BBC tried to pull Loyd Grossman from the show.

If Bostonian Loyd had been pulled at the last minute the Liverpool team would happily have walked away from the show, The Insider can reveal.

Adds our source : "After soaring ahead in the pre-vote, Newcastle overtook us and went on to win this 'for fun only' poll. However the judges will make the real decision and Tony Blair .

"It's not sour grapes, but this film didn't do us any favours."

Roy's birthday bash >

IT'S usually the younger footballers who frequent the Newz Bar, but now it seems the older veterans are enjoying the place.

The insider refers to former LFC manager Roy Evans who booked into the venue at the weekend to celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary with family.

Our snout says: "Roy and his family had a great time there. He is a real gent, quite shy.

"There was another family having a birthday bash and he happily signed autographs and wished them well."

Go on, give us a smile then, Kev >

DJ Kev Seed was spotted recently at the teeth-whitening clinic in Greens gym. The insider source tells us that on a clear morning, you can now see Kev smiling away in the Radio City tower from St. John's Gardens.

Could it be that he was dazzled by a recent chat with Heidi Range when the two were deep in conversation .

Our snout at City says: "I was walking in somewhat bleary-eyed the other morning and saw this beacon of light. "I shrugged it off blaming the drink but then Kev smiled at me and the penny dropped."

Kittens united for gig >

FOOTBALL fanatics Atomic Kitten will be performing in front of a worldwide audience of 500 million at the Champions League final - but, The Insider can reveal, it's a gig they almost turned down.

Tash, Liz and Jenny had to think twice before they agreed to appear on stage at the game, despite persuasion from manager Martin O'Shea .

Tash and Jenny, who are Red hot Liverpool FC fans, and Liz, a staunch supporter of Everton, were reluctant to perform if their sworn soccer enemies made it to the final, explains Martin: "They said if Manchester Utd got to the final they would gauge everyone's reaction and then think about pulling out," he sighs. "But I convinced them it wasn't about the Manchester/Liverpool rivalry, but about the prestige of it.

"This is the second biggest football event in the world so it's far bigger than an inter-city thing."

The Kittens took their chances, kept their fingers crossed and decided to sign up before United came up against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. But they breathed a sigh of relief when the Red Devils were beaten by the Spanish side.

The Kittens will now definitely be appearing at Old Trafford on May 28, performing one of their hits at half-time. Martin says: "We'll probably do The Tide Is High because it's so upbeat, although we did consider You'll Never Walk Alone!" he teases.

Come on girls, we dare you ...

undefined MUSIC> consultancy Soundmob and ITS MD Andy Mac McGloughlin caused quite a stir recently when Godfather of house music, Marshall Jefferson flew over from his native Chicago to spin some tunes at Beige Bar & Grill.

Quite a catch we think, but clearly there are differences in house music in the States compared to over here.

Jefferson wowed the crowd with a mix of trance house and deep house, but looked slightly bemused when a merry punter asked for 'kebab house' towards the end of the evening.

A doorman rescued the punter from the rather well-built DJ and muttered in his ear: "There's no 'Scouse house' either mate, coz the restaurant closed two hours ago!"